May 2013

May 29, 2013

There was a time last year when Dallas Cowboys safety Matt
Johnson didn’t even to answer his phone for fear of the endless questions from
concerned friends and family about his practice status, let alone whether he was
ever going to play in a game.

“They would call and ask if I was playing week,” said
Johnson about a frustrating rookie year in which he participated in only a
handful of practices and played in no games because of a nagging hamstring
injury

“It’s kind of got to the point where I didn’t want to look
at the phone. It’s fun now to say I practiced again. I practiced again. I have
put a couple of practices together. Hopefully, they will stop asking if I
practiced.”

So put Johnson's participation in offseason workouts the past
two weeks in the category of small victories for him and the Cowboys.

But slow down on any talk of Johnson being a favorite to
help solve the Cowboys questions at safety opposite Barry Church.

Remember Johnson missed OTAs last year after being drafted
in the fourth round out of Eastern Washington because of school.He then injured
his hamstring in minicamp, which forced him to miss most of training camp _
outside of a few practices leading up to the team’s third preseason game
against the St. Louis Rams.

Johnson played 12 snaps against the Rams but re-injured the
hamstring the process.

He was placed on injured reserve to start the season before
returning to practice in mid-October. Two days before he set to play in his
first NFL game against Carolina
on Oct. 21 he re-aggravated the hamstring injury.

Secondary coach Jerome Henderson is just happy to see
Johnson on the field and considers him no different than a rookie

“Absolutely by a long shot, this is the longest stretch we
have seen Matt,” Henderson
said. “Yes it is. So he is a rookie. He is not just like a rookie, he is a
rookie. In my book he is rookie just like all the other rookies.”

Henderson
said Johnson is progressing well but he didn’t see enough of him last year to
have a good opinion about his potential.

“He was only out here a day or two and he would have some
medical setbacks,” Henderson
said. “So it wasn’t enough to make an opinion.”

The Cowboys signed one of the offensive tackles they worked out
this week.

J.B. Shugarts, a former top recruit from Klein who spent last
year with the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills, joined the Cowboys, along
with long snapper Jackson Anderson, an undrafted rookie who spent five years at
Duke.

To make room, the Cowboys released long snapper Charley Hughlett
and receiver Carlton Mitchell.

Shugarts signed with the Browns after the draft last year, was
cut and signed to the practice squad in September, released a week later, then
joined the Bills practice squad in December and was released three weeks later.

With Shugarts’ signing, the Cowboys have six tackles on the
roster, including Doug Free, Tyron Smith, Jermey Parnell, Darrion Weems and
Edawn Coughman.

May 28, 2013

Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant is so confident in his abilities to not only adhere to Jordan's advice of staying out of trouble but also continuing to develop as one of the league top game
breakers that he will not get paid the first year of his three-year endorsement deal with
Jordan Brand at his request.

According to a source, it was Bryant’s idea to work for
free the first year of the deal outside of athletic gear/apparel and prove
himself worthy of the Jordan Brand.

“He told Jordan,
let me show you,” the source said.

Of course, if you know Bryant the Jordan gear is like money to him.

Bryant is the seventh NFL player to join the apparel group and will be part of a new marketing campaign coming this summer, a source said.

NBA legend Michael Jordan had four words for Cowboys
receiver Dez Bryant when he met him for the first time in February at the NBA all-star game
in Houston: stay out of trouble.

Bryant, who recently signed an endorsement deal with the
Jordan Brand, plans to oblige.

"Whenever you represent a guy like Michael Jordan you
got to be right," Bryant said. "I don't know one guy who doesn't
admire him. It's very rare to be a part of that group (a Jordan Brand athlete
endorser). Just to be blessed to be part of that group means a lot to me.
Before I was even signed to the brand all I rocked were Jordans. I'm
blessed to be part of that. I'm going to stay focused and do my job and hold
myself accountable with my actions."

Bryant recalled meeting Jordan for the first time at his
birthday party and being nervous before getting a stern edict from his idol.

"The only thing he told me was "stay out of
trouble", Bryant said. "Hearing it from him, he is a strong voice.
His opinion matters. It just adds fuel to trying to do things great at all
times, that’s something you don’t want to mess up. Now, I do pay attention to
that, just because of the fact of who he is and what he is about. Everybody
knows Michael Jordan is about his business, so that makes you want to be about
yours.”

Even though Jerry Jones said last week that Jason Garrett isn't coaching for his job this season, the Cowboys head coach figures that comes with the job.

"Ever since I’ve been in this league, as a player, as a coach, I think everybody each and every day is playing and coaching for their jobs," Garrett said Tuesday. "That’s the nature of this thing, and that’s what makes the NFL great. You come here to work every day and you know we use the word urgency a lot to make important. Every day is important as a coach, as a player, we’re trying to get ourselves better each and every day so we can become the team we want to be."

Garrett is 21-19 in his 2 1/2 seasons as the Cowboys' head coach. He is entering the third year of a four-year deal he signed before the 2011 season after Jones removed the "interim" title Garrett received midway through the 2010 season when he replaced Wade Phillips.

But the Cowboys owner said on NFL Network last week that Garrett's job is not on the line this season.

"Well, no, no he's not ... to the last question: Is Jason coaching for his job? No," Jones said from the NFL's spring meetings in Boston. "What we're doing is taking the assets that we have, and Jason being right at the top and certainly our premier asset, and we're using them to the best of our ability."

Defensive end Anthony Spencer believes he did enough last season to warrant a long-term deal, but if it doesn't get done, he will do what he did last year.

"I'm really not worried about it," Spencer said Tuesday on the second week of OTAs. "I come here, I work, and then I go home and relax. If it gets done, it gets done. I have the same attitude I had last year. It ended up working out for me, so I don't worry about it much."

Spencer, 29, played under the franchise tag last year. He made $8.8 million. After his first Pro Bowl and a career-high 11 sacks, the Cowboys franchised him again this year. He will make $10.6 million but hopes his agent, Jordan Woy, can work out a long-term deal before the NFL-mandated July 15 deadline.

"I want to be here for the rest of my career," Spencer said. "Hopefully we can get that done. If we can’t, then so be it."

Spencer should get something in the range of the five-year, $41 million deal that Paul Kruger signed with Cleveland. It included $20 million guaranteed.

"With the franchise tag I have right now, it’s pretty much up in the air after this season," Spencer said. "I want to be here, and that’s pretty much the bottom line."

Spencer is ready to change positions. He goes from an outside linebacker in the 3-4 where he played his first six seasons to a position he played in college. He will be a defensive end in Monte Kiffin's Tampa Two 4-3.

"I get to rush," Spencer said. "I don’t have to worry about any of the coverage stuff, formations and what’s going on in the back end. I can just focus on the ball and getting to the ball. That’s the easy part."

Spencer has added 10 pounds from where he finished last season at 252-253. He figures he'll start the season 5 pounds heavier than last season after the typical training camp weight loss.

The Cowboys worked out two tackles on Tuesday _ J.B. Shugarts and Dann O'Neil.

According to a source, the team was just going throught he process of continuing to look at line guys. No decision was made to sign either of them as yet. The Cowboys would have to make a roster move to add a player.

Shugarts, a former top recruit of Klein, Tx., who started three years at Ohio State, spent last season on the Buffalo Bills practice squad. O'Neill played in college Western Michigan and was cut by the Houston Texans.

He joined the Cowboys as a third-round pick in 2011 with a reputation of being injury prone in college at Oklahoma, despite owning the school records for points, touchdowns and all-purpose yards.

Murray then missed nine games his two seasons combined, prompting the Cowboys to draft Oklahoma State star Joseph Randle in the fifth round this year to help shoulder the load going forward.

Now Murray is sidelined for the start of OTAs with a tweaked hamstring. He missed all of last week and Tuesday but plans to work back on Wednesday.

While he said he doesn’t worry about the injury-prone label, he does plan on changing the perception in 2013 by doing something he has never done before: play all 16 games.

“That’s something I can’t control,” Murray said of the critics. “I can’t control if anything happens. All I can do is go out there, play hard, play fast, play physical. Once I’m out there, I don’t think there’s any question about anything.

“...I am going to play all 16 (games) this year, and I’m excited. It’s going to be a great year for us.”

If Murray plays all 16 games, it should be a great year for the Cowboys.

One thing he has proved over his first two years is that the Cowboys are better when Murray is in the lineup and running well. He has 218 carries for 1,100 yards in Cowboys' wins in 2011 and 2012 compared to 107 carries for 466 yards in losses.

His importance is not lost on the Cowboys, who support the decision by Murray and the trainers to take it slow during OTA workouts so he can be ready to live up to his promise of a full season on the field.

“DeMarco, he’s going to be good,” receiver Dez Bryant said. “The thing about it is, we’re in OTAs and we don’t want to get him out there when he’s not ready and something comes up. We need him throughout the whole year. Not only for DeMarco but for every player, we don’t want to rush anybody. He’s a great player and he’s probably one of the biggest pieces to this puzzle. He’s doing fine.”

Said tight end Jason Witten: "I think it’ll be huge for us. He’s a guy that plays hard and runs hard. I think we’ll do a better job offensively running the ball. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on that. He’s a dynamic back who can create a lot of things for you. He’s got to be healthy and out there. He’s worked hard to get there, and hopefully we’ll get to see him here in these OTAs. A lot of that has been tightened up. We can’t be in those situations that we were last year. It’s just too hard to overcome."

May 22, 2013

He now is with his seventh team, counting his brief tenure with the Packers last year after signing a one-year, $825,000 deal. Green Bay released him rather than place him on the reserved/suspended list after the league announced his eight-game suspension for Bountygate.

“You guys have got to make up your minds on really what took place there,” Hargrove said. “I had to live with it. I had to deal with it. It’s a new day in my life. It’s 2013. I’m trying to continue my career and finish up in a strong way.”

Hargrove has been here previously, trying to taking advantage of a second chance. He did that in 2009, after nearly losing his career for violations of the league’s substance-abuse policy that put him out of the league in 2008 and in rehab for 10 months.

The Saints were the only team that offered him a contract a year later. Hargrove played 56.9 percent of the defensive snaps and recorded 63 tackles, five sacks and three fumble recoveries in 2009 as New Orleans won the Super Bowl.

“Maybe I’m an enigma for trouble,” Hargrove said. “I’m trying to get past this three-year thing where I can maybe get five years in the league without losing a year. Maybe that’s what teams are thinking. I don’t know. We’re going to try to break that.”

Hargrove, who turns 30 this summer, still has an injury lawsuit pending against the league, and according to Pro Football Talk, it claims playing football causes him to suffer “from permanent injuries, including, but not limited to, severe headaches, memory loss, depression, isolation, mental anguish and diminished self-esteem.”

“Can’t comment on that,” Hargrove said. “It is what it is. I’m here to play ball, and I’m going to try to do my best and not let anything outside of that hinder me getting on this field and playing.”

Coach Jason Garrett said the Cowboys are comfortable with Hargrove’s off-field issues, having “evaluated the circumstances.” But they are the only team to offer Hargrove.

“Maybe I’m an enigma for trouble,” Hargrove said. “I’m trying to get past this three-year thing where I can maybe get five years in the league without losing a year. Maybe that’s what teams are thinking. I don’t know. We’re going to try to break that.”

Dez Bryant is coming off a pretty good year – 92 catches, 1,382
yards, 12 touchdowns.

The Cowboys don’t resist thinking even higher with him.

“Absolutely. That’s our job,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Our job
is to make him the best he can be. ... We watch the tape and say, ‘Boy, you can
play so much better. So much better.’ ”

Bryant said Tuesday as organized practices began at Valley Ranch
that he has “found himself” this offseason, the quietest of his pro career. He
said part of it is from being around successful pros.

“What we do as coaches is we show him, ‘This is how you can play
better, this is how we’re going to help you play better – individual drills, in
practice, what you’re doing after practice, understanding the system better,
all of those things, and carrying that stuff to the game.’ ”

Bryant helps himself with his eagerness to play, Garrett said.

“He’s really , really a joy to coach,” Garrett said. “He has such
passion for the game. He loves it. He loves his teammates. He loves to play.”